Head-To-Head Analysis: Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) and Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE:PKST)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) and Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE:PKST) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Equity Residential and Peakstone Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equity Residential	0	10	9	0	2.47
Peakstone Realty Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Equity Residential currently has a consensus price target of $78.14, indicating a potential upside of 9.16%. Peakstone Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 35.50%. Given Peakstone Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Peakstone Realty Trust is more favorable than Equity Residential.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.7% of Equity Residential shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of Peakstone Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Equity Residential shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Peakstone Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Equity Residential has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peakstone Realty Trust has a beta of 2.5, meaning that its stock price is 150% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Equity Residential and Peakstone Realty Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equity Residential	$2.94 billion	9.24	$835.44 million	$2.44	29.34
Peakstone Realty Trust	$233.20 million	1.73	-$550.58 million	($1.18)	-9.38

Equity Residential has higher revenue and earnings than Peakstone Realty Trust. Peakstone Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Equity Residential, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Equity Residential pays an annual dividend of $2.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Peakstone Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.1%. Equity Residential pays out 110.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Peakstone Realty Trust pays out -76.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peakstone Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Equity Residential and Peakstone Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equity Residential	31.57%	8.31%	4.61%
Peakstone Realty Trust	-18.26%	-3.61%	-1.59%

Summary

Equity Residential beats Peakstone Realty Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equity Residential

Equity Residential is committed to creating communities where people thrive. The Company, a member of the S&P 500, is focused on the acquisition, development and management of residential properties located in and around dynamic cities that attract affluent long-term renters. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 305 properties consisting of 80,683 apartment units, with an established presence in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Francisco and Southern California, and an expanding presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin.

About Peakstone Realty Trust

Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE: PKST) is an internally managed, real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates a high-quality, newer-vintage portfolio of predominantly single-tenant industrial and office properties. These assets are generally leased to creditworthy tenants under long-term net lease agreements with contractual rent escalations. As of March 31, 2023, Peakstone's wholly-owned portfolio consists of 19 million square feet across 24 states in primarily high-growth, strategic coastal and sunbelt markets.